Jazzfest 2008

Went to second weekend of Jazzfest last weekend. All in all I was glad to be back for that short time. It was refreshing to be back in the throng, the tremendous gathering that occurs this time of year. After being drenched watching Stevie Wonder and the John Butler Trio I decided to take shelter in the WWOZ Jazz Tent where Terence Blanchard was playing the soundtrack to Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke" with LPO providing the orchestral accompaniment. Didn't eat the usual crawfish sack, crawfish beignets, oyster pattie, and crawfish monica. I went for the cochon de lait po-boy instead and a tasty plate of red beans and rice with sausage. I think I also indulged in a plate of bbq pork ribs with white beans by the blues tent. This was all washed down by a satisfying glass of mandarin orange iced tea and two pints of Pilsner Urquell draft. I practically broke the bank with my weekend excursion back to NOLA.

Passed by Bart and Christy's after the fest that Saturday. Ended up staying the night after one too many SoCo and soda water concoctions, bowl hits, and philosophical rants. Checked out Persephone too. Nice basement accomodations and it was rather cool that night. That was the end of Friday.

Went to Rue the following morning to catch up on my reading and for old time's sake to see how my old caffeine fueling hole was doing. Same as always minus certain familiar faces including the baristas. Met up with Matt and Veronica that afternoon to watch Robert Downey Jr. play superhero in "Iron Man". Is it because the previews were too revealing? The visual effects feast was a given but nowadays movies like that don't quite thrill me anymore. Too cliche'd and too juvenile to warrant any degree of intense appreciation. Plot development unsophisticated and cartoonish as expected but am I being too critical? It was good to see "The Dude" playing a baddie however. After the movie we met at 13 on Frenchmen for lunch.

Friday at the fest was all I could manage for the year. I couldn't imagine shelling out another forty to fifty greenbacks for another day at the fest. The Hornets were going to play game 1 of series two that night against San Antonio. So that was going to be the highlight of my second day in New Orleans. Tickets were sold out however, so I spent that evening watching the game at a friend's house. It was a late game and I was too pooped to go out that night so watching the Hornet's win game 1 against last year's world champs pretty much completed my activities for Saturday.

Sunday's high point was having lunch with my brother Jon and his wife Linda along with their eight month old son, Olivier. It was at Hana Japanese Restaurant on Hampson St. Five hours later I was on a flight back to Seattle. Man, I miss New Orleans.